{"id":217239,"date":"2025-12-30T01:19:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T01:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/217239\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T01:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T01:19:06","slug":"too-complacent-how-blairs-advisers-misjudged-his-disastrous-wi-speech-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/217239\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Too complacent\u2019: how Blair\u2019s advisers misjudged his disastrous WI speech | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Blair\u2019s key advisers agonised over the writing of his notoriously ill-judged speech to the Women\u2019s Institute (WI) which saw the then prime minister heckled and slow hand-clapped before 10,000 members at Wembley Arena<\/a>, newly released documents reveal.<\/p>\n

Despite the WI explicitly warning they were \u201cwary of anything that smacked of capital P politics\u201d, Blair\u2019s aides were critical of his first draft and bombarded him with additions to inject more policy.<\/p>\n

Fresh from paternity leave after the birth of his son Leo, Blair believed the annual WI conference in 2000 allowed for a more personal and reflective speech and an opportunity to blend tradition and modernity to appeal to middle England.<\/p>\n

But his communications chief, Alastair Campbell<\/a>, wrote of the first draft: \u201cThere is not much sense of a recharged, refocused Blair firing on all fronts, and in parts, a danger of coming over as rather Majoresque.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Institute members made up a 10,000-strong audience for Blair\u2019s speech. Photograph: Peter Jordan\/PA<\/p>\n

Particular lines that irked Campbell included Blair saying he applauded the Tate Modern \u201ceven though I don\u2019t always understand it\u201d and describing any suggestion of doing away with the old-fashioned \u201cpomp and pageantry of the queen\u2019s speech in parliament\u201d as an \u201cunnecessary act of destruction of an ancient and loved ceremony\u201d.<\/p>\n

Campbell wrote: \u201cThe queen\u2019s speech\/Tate Modern stuff comes across as rather desperate and you sound in parts like a commentator rather than a political leader.\u201d There was a \u201crisk of it seeming patronising\u201d, he added, urging Blair to address topics such as drugs, Sure Start, university access and small business startups. The speech was \u201ctoo complacent and too comfortable\u201d and a \u201cseeming effort to distance yourself from what is you\u201d.<\/p>\n

The strategy and polling adviser Philip Gould felt it \u201cleaves the wrong taste\u2019\u201d, tried to be \u201cconversational but instead feels condescending\u201d and lacked \u201cenergy, verve, dynamism and change\u201d, according to files released to the National Archives at Kew, west London.<\/a><\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s special adviser Peter Hyman thought it \u201chands the Tories a huge propaganda victory\u201d. \u201cArguably it might suit the audience, but I do not think it satisfies the political moment that we must seize\u201d, he wrote, adding that it could be interpreted as a \u201c\u2018back to basics\u2019 speech (Blair becomes Major)\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not think the \u2018old-fashioned values\u2019 message will \u2018settle down\u201d Middle England or anyone else,\u201d Hyman wrote.<\/p>\n

In another memo Hyman said it could be interpreted as: \u201cTB sheds cool image for appeal to fuddy duddy Britain (Don\u2019t understand the Tate, love royal ceremonies.) Looks like we want the Telegraph vote not just the meritocratic Murdoch vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

An excerpt from a document released by the National Archives at Kew, west London regarding Blair\u2019s speech to the Women\u2019s Institute. Photograph: Andrew Matthews\/PA<\/p>\n

The political adviser Sally Morgan was \u201cdeeply uncomfortable with the concept of \u2018old-fashioned values\u2019\u201d which she believed would be \u201cvery alien to most of our under-40 voters (if not older as well). We may be speaking to Middle England, but they are not all late middle-aged or elderly\u201d. She advised Blair not to say \u201c\u2018women tied to the kitchen\u2019 as many of your audience stay at home\u201d.<\/p>\n

As re-drafts were circulated, Anji Hunter, Blair\u2019s special assistant, lamented the eventual excision of royal matters, pointing out that the queen was \u201can exemplar of WI values and indeed ours \u2013 of community, responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

A week before Blair was due to give his address, Julian Braithwaite from the No 10 press office had met the WI leadership to see what they were expecting. \u201cThey were wary of anything that smacked of capital P politics, and are clearly sensitive to being patronised,\u201d he reported back.<\/p>\n

The result, after several rewrites, was met with heckles, jeers and slow-hand clapping by its unappreciative WI audience, with many comparing it to a party political broadcast, and the media dubbing the eventual speech as \u201can extraordinary error of political judgment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Looking back years later for a BBC documentary, Blair recalled: \u201cI gave them a lecture, they gave me a raspberry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Blair\u2019s key advisers agonised over the writing of his notoriously ill-judged speech to the Women\u2019s Institute (WI)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-217239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}